Take, for example, news that emerged this week that a city in eastern Anhui province had built a 418-square-meter toilet that looks like a mash-up of the White House and the U.S. Capitol Building. According to the official China Daily, the toilet cost a local liquor company $144,000 to construct, and promptly sparked a flurry of commentary, with some condemning such an expenditure as, well, a waste.

Attempts to reach the company for comment weren’t successful. The newspaper quoted the liquor company as saying the toilet was built to accommodate its staff of 4,000 as well as the thousands of customers who visit the premises.

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It’s not the first time a so-called luxury toilet has made headlines here. Previous public toilets have been built in the style of a European clock tower, a villa or with soaring eaves. Last year, the city of Linfen in Shanxi province was reported in state media to have spent more than $8 million to build 160 public toilets, among them 40 “five-star toilets,” some of which were designed to look like landmarks including the Olympic Bird’s Nest.

Urinals shaped like alligators’ heads are seen in Chongqing.

Te-Ping Chen/The Wall Street Journal

For a country that has issued exacting standards to grade and dictate toilet quality—including the requirement that no more than three flies per square meter appear in public bathrooms—perhaps it’s no surprise that residents seem to feel a particular fascination with toilets. (They’re not alone: for many years, some of the chief tales Westerners liked to bring back home from visits to China were regarding the stench and sub-standard quality of the country’s toilets, an image that’s persisted, even as they’ve improved in many cities.)

Given the by turns outlandish and creative imaginations behind some of the country’s toilets, it’s no surprise, either, that some have become tourist attractions in their own right.

A 24-karat gold bathroom in Hong Kong (including a chandelier, 6,200 inlaid pearls and golden paneling, along with a 24-karat gold toilet with a functioning flush) used to attract scores of mainland tourist groups per day before it was largely dismantled. The world’s so-called “longest connected bathroom” in Chongqing is also a tourist attraction, one that includes urinals in the shape of alligator heads and faucets shaped like elephants, albeit a slightly woebegone-looking one worse for the wear.

After all, while China’s fancy toilets may pack a lot of flash, in the end, it’s just about the flush.

“We wanted to make the building a little special in appearance, but more important, we emphasize its function as a toilet, so the interior decoration is not so luxurious as some people imagine,” an executive with Anhui Golden Seed Winery Co., the company that commissioned the White House-style toilet, told China Daily.

– Te-Ping Chen. Follow her on Twitter at @tepingchen
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